DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.809#0068
44
IMPULSE FROM THE SOUTH: EARLY NILOTIC
Stone
palettes
and ves-
sels of
Nilotic
types
from
Mesara
tholoi.
Was
there a
Libyan
element
in Crete ?
construction, with a keeled vaulting, and the influence of this type on smaller
tombs extends as far West as the neighbourhood of Canea. A remarkable
structure to be described below bids us pause, however, before we regard the
non-discovery in Crete up to the present date of beehive tombs contemporary
with those of Mycenae as definitely excluding the survival in the Island of
the tradition of the primitive vaults.
At Arkhanes, the nearest important Minoan centre inland of Knossos,
the lower part of a circular Well-House has in fact come to light1 built, on
a smaller scale, apparently after the same beehive fashion as the Mycenae
tombs and dating from the beginning of the First Late Minoan Period.
The affiliation in their turn of the tholos ossuaries of Mesara to similar
sepulchral structures distributed over a wide Libyan area, for which there
is such good evidence, is only one aspect of the very ancient relationship
between prehistoric Crete and the opposite African coastlands, which in its
earliest phase seems to have centred on the Delta. A fuller knowledge
indeed of the contents of the Mesara vaults themselves enables us to sup-
plement the evidence already supplied by the stone figurines.
Two classes of objects well represented in these ossuaries may be here
mentioned as specially significant. The rectangular stone palettes of the
late pre-dynastic age, used, like the earlier forms of more varied outline, for
malachite and antimony to adorn the person, are of frequent occurrence in
these interments, doubtless for similar toilet use2 (Fig. 20, a, d). Among
the prehistoric vessels from Hierakonpolis are types consisting of a stone
block with cups cylindrically bored and diagonal perforations on the upper
edge, as if for suspension or the attachment of a cover.3 This heavy form of
vessel (Fig. 20, b, c), possibly of ritual usage, is the progenitor of a whole
series of later and somewhat more decorative forms with similar diagonal
perforations that characterize these Cretan tholoi (see Fig. 20, e, f).
Survivals of these types are also found in Late Minoan deposits.4
In face of these remarkable parallels, not only in the structure of the
sepulchral vaults but in their most typical contents, it may well be asked
1 See p. 64, Fig. 29.
* The Nilotic class are of slate, those of the
Mesara ossuaries are of limestone. Fig. 20, d,
is given by Xanthudides, op. at., PI. XXI. The
use of these stone palettes also spread to the
Cyclades, and recur at Sesklo in Thessaly
(Tsountas). On marble examples from Paros
and other Cycladic sites are traces of a red
material (probably peroxide of iron) used no
doubt for toilette purposes. For the traces
of tattooing on early Cycladic marble images
see especially Chr. Blinkenberg, Prcemykeniske
Oldsager (Aarbager f. N. Oldk., &°c, 1896),
p. 40 seqq.
3 Quibell, Hierakonpolis, i, PI. XXXI, 3, 4.
4 S. House, Knossos, L.M. la; Palaikastro,
p. 135 ; L. M. III. Also at Mycenae.
IMPULSE FROM THE SOUTH: EARLY NILOTIC
Stone
palettes
and ves-
sels of
Nilotic
types
from
Mesara
tholoi.
Was
there a
Libyan
element
in Crete ?
construction, with a keeled vaulting, and the influence of this type on smaller
tombs extends as far West as the neighbourhood of Canea. A remarkable
structure to be described below bids us pause, however, before we regard the
non-discovery in Crete up to the present date of beehive tombs contemporary
with those of Mycenae as definitely excluding the survival in the Island of
the tradition of the primitive vaults.
At Arkhanes, the nearest important Minoan centre inland of Knossos,
the lower part of a circular Well-House has in fact come to light1 built, on
a smaller scale, apparently after the same beehive fashion as the Mycenae
tombs and dating from the beginning of the First Late Minoan Period.
The affiliation in their turn of the tholos ossuaries of Mesara to similar
sepulchral structures distributed over a wide Libyan area, for which there
is such good evidence, is only one aspect of the very ancient relationship
between prehistoric Crete and the opposite African coastlands, which in its
earliest phase seems to have centred on the Delta. A fuller knowledge
indeed of the contents of the Mesara vaults themselves enables us to sup-
plement the evidence already supplied by the stone figurines.
Two classes of objects well represented in these ossuaries may be here
mentioned as specially significant. The rectangular stone palettes of the
late pre-dynastic age, used, like the earlier forms of more varied outline, for
malachite and antimony to adorn the person, are of frequent occurrence in
these interments, doubtless for similar toilet use2 (Fig. 20, a, d). Among
the prehistoric vessels from Hierakonpolis are types consisting of a stone
block with cups cylindrically bored and diagonal perforations on the upper
edge, as if for suspension or the attachment of a cover.3 This heavy form of
vessel (Fig. 20, b, c), possibly of ritual usage, is the progenitor of a whole
series of later and somewhat more decorative forms with similar diagonal
perforations that characterize these Cretan tholoi (see Fig. 20, e, f).
Survivals of these types are also found in Late Minoan deposits.4
In face of these remarkable parallels, not only in the structure of the
sepulchral vaults but in their most typical contents, it may well be asked
1 See p. 64, Fig. 29.
* The Nilotic class are of slate, those of the
Mesara ossuaries are of limestone. Fig. 20, d,
is given by Xanthudides, op. at., PI. XXI. The
use of these stone palettes also spread to the
Cyclades, and recur at Sesklo in Thessaly
(Tsountas). On marble examples from Paros
and other Cycladic sites are traces of a red
material (probably peroxide of iron) used no
doubt for toilette purposes. For the traces
of tattooing on early Cycladic marble images
see especially Chr. Blinkenberg, Prcemykeniske
Oldsager (Aarbager f. N. Oldk., &°c, 1896),
p. 40 seqq.
3 Quibell, Hierakonpolis, i, PI. XXXI, 3, 4.
4 S. House, Knossos, L.M. la; Palaikastro,
p. 135 ; L. M. III. Also at Mycenae.